Audience measurement measures how many people are in an audience, usually in relation to radiolistenership and televisionviewership, but also in relation to newspaper and magazinereadership and, increasingly, web traffic on websites. Sometimes, the term is used as pertaining to practices which help broadcasters and advertisers determine who is listening rather than just how many people are listening. In some parts of the world, the resulting relative numbers are referred to as audience share, while in other places the broader term market share is used. This broader meaning is also called audience research.

The diary was one of the first methods of recording information. However, this is prone to mistakes and forgetfulness, as well as subjectivity. Data is also collected down to the level of listener opinion of individual songs, cross referenced against their age, race, and economic status in listening sessions sponsored by oldies and mix formatted stations. IBOPE was the first realtime service for audience measurement of the world, it started in São Paulo in 1942.

The audience measurement of U.S. television has relied on sampling to obtain estimated audience sizes in which advertisers determine the value of such acquisitions. According to The Television Will Be Revolutionized, Amanda D. Lotz states that during the 1960s and 1970s, Nielsen introduced the Storage Instantaneous Audimeter, a device that daily sent viewing information to the company's computers using phone lines and made national daily ratings available by 1973. Although the audimeters did not supply sufficient information regarding demographics of the audience, it did however allow Nielsen to establish diary reports that presented some insight on the audience. According to Lotz, the Nielsen sample included approximately 1,700 audimeter homes and a rotating panel of approximately 850 diary respondents. Nielsen was the controlling factor of audience measurement for national network television.[1]

In the mid-2000s, networks cried foul, blaming Nielsen for inaccurate rating measurements. This public attention was just the beginning, as Nielsen implemented its automated Local People Meter (LPM) technology.[2] The LPM marked the shift from active, diary based local measurement to more passive, meter-monitored measurement of local markets. Technologically, the LPM is very similar to the original Nielsen People Meter. The key advancement was that the LPM provided accurate measurements of particular local markets.[3][4] The LPM system has also allowed the industry to measure year-round, rather than the quarterly "sweeps" periods. Researchers believed that the LPM more accurately reported the full range of programming viewers watched, including that while channel-surfing. Arbitron's Portable People Meter uses a microphone to pick up and record subaudible tones embedded in broadcasts by an encoder at each station or network. It has even been used to track in-store radio.[5]

Because of the internet, many businesses are no longer constrained to establishing sales to just their local markets, but alternatively can serve customers across much larger territories. The arising development of markets boosts the likelihood of offering low-occurrence niche items that would go through challenges in order to encounter the ideal customers in a specific area of markets. In his Journal of Advertising Research, author Chris Anderson remarks: "for some internet-based businesses, locality no longer regulates the market." When consumers obtain access to a greater range of choices, they gravitate toward exercising those choices, awarding fewer of their "votes" to the big hits and more of their "votes" to specialized niche choices. Anderson argues that people always wanted more choices, but their desires previously were obscured by distributional bottlenecks imposed by cost or locality.

New digital technologies initially complicated in-home measurement systems. The DVR, for example, initially seemed incompatible with a Nielsen box, which was designed to register the frequency of the television signal in order to measure the channel being viewed.[6] As a DVR always produces the same frequency, an A/P or active/passive meter could be developed to read audio tracks of a particular program rather than the frequency of the television.[7] Another challenge to the industry was consumers' turning to digital cable, the internet and devices other than their television sets to view entertainment content. As new ways of measurement were becoming readily available and people could easily be tracked and monitored for content and use, the industry worried that traditional sampling techniques might become obsolete. Furthermore, the increasing fragmentation of viewing across different technologies posed difficulties in reporting actual viewer numbers for a content piece. In 2010 Nielsen began rolling out its "anytime anywhere media measurement" initiative, which includes DVR views in the television figures.[8] Dubbed “GTAM,” which stands for Global Television Audience Metering, is based on the development of new audience metering technologies aimed at dealing with all of the conceivable challenges involved in measuring the video viewing behavior of contemporary consumer households across multiple platforms (TV, Internet, mobile devices). Existing A/P meters will be replaced by so-called GTAM meters which are expected to utilize a combination of active and passive measurement technologies. However, unlike A/P meters, they will not require a physical connection to any media devices to function.[9]

TruMedia, Quividi, relEYEble, stickyPiXEL, Cognitec, goCount and CognoVision provide real-time audience data including size, attention span and demographics by using video analytics technology to automatically detect, track and classify viewers watching digital displays. Networked Insights measures online audiences, and released a report ranking television shows, based on people's interactions within social media. The study showed that half of the shows on Networked Insights' top 10 list did not appear on the Nielsen Media Research (NMR) list.

According to "The Television Will Be Revolutionized" by Amanda D. Lotz, one of the most challenging aspects of audience measurement during the multi-channel transition resulted from the intermediary nature of new technologies and distribution systems. The sampling techniques that most audience research relied upon were based on a fairly uniform nationwide availability of technologies and programming, and thus reflected a network-era experience with television. The arrival of varied programming tiers of cable channels challenged the system as US television homes began having highly descriptive access to technology and programming and consequently began using television in significantly different ways. Although the A/P meter solved the problem of DVR use, programming on video on demand systems did not include the "audio watermark" used by the device. The nation's many cable providers also limited access to the proprietary data recorded by their set top boxes, which reduced the informational gain offered by this technology. Video on demand desperately needed to establish measurement matrices to prove its economic viability, but the lack of shared and consistent information further confounded knowledge about use. Likewise, the erosion of the thirty- second advertisement's dominance and the new advertising strategies that became increasingly common required the creation of new methods and matrices to determine value and pricing.

The goal of these leading providers in automated audience measurement solutions is to deliver results to inquiries such as: The nature of the audience, the number of viewers, the content viewed, the amount of time spent on viewing, the type of display utilized and the audience interest in those displays. In "The Television Will be Revolutionized", Amanda Lotz clearly indicates how technological development in the audience measurement practice provides a multitude of technological advancements such as the DVR, Video-On-Demand portable devices such as the iPod and even a boost in mobile phone proficiencies. These improvements comply with television viewing not to be restrained to be "home-watched". Internet measurement is taken to the next level through its sophistication and high tech distribution. This allows several audiences measurement companies to refer to the Internet as the most measurable media.

One single television ratings point (Rtg or TVR) represents 1% of viewers in the surveyed area in a given minute. As of 2004, there are an estimated 109.6 million television households in the United States. Thus, a single national household ratings point represents 1%, or 1,096,000 households for the 2004–05 season. When used for the broadcast of a program, the average rating across the duration of the show is typically given. Ratings points are often used for specific demographics rather than just households. For example a ratings point among the key 18–49 year olds demographic is equivalent to 1% of all 18–49 year olds in the country.

A Rtg/TVR is different from a share point in that it is the percentage of all possible viewers, while a share point is 1% of all viewers watching television at the time. Hence the share of a broadcast is often significantly higher than the rating, especially at times when overall TV viewing is low. A low TRP can have an adverse effect on a TV program eventually leading to its closure.[12]

Gross rating points (GRPs) or target rating points (TRPs) are chiefly used to measure the performance of TV-based advertising campaigns, and are the sum of the TVRs of each commercial spot within the campaign. An ad campaign might require a certain number of GRPs among a particular demographic across the duration of the campaign. The GRP of a campaign is equal to the percentage of people who saw, multiplied by the average number of spots that these viewers saw. Targeted Rating Points are a refinement of GRPs to express the reach time frequency of only the most likely prospects. For example, if a campaign buys 150 GRPs for a television spot, but only half of that audience is actually in the market for the campaign's product, then the TRP would be stated as 75 to calculate the net effective buy [1].

Gross rating point, a standard measure in advertising, it measures advertising impact. It is a percent of the target market reached multiplied by the exposure frequency. Thus, a program which advertises to 30% of the target market and gives them 4 exposures, will have 120 GRP.

GRPs as a measure has some limitations. People like to think of it as a measure of impact, but that is really overstated. Impact should measure sales; this measures exposures, which is in fact assumed not actual exposures.

Basics of TAM (television advertising measurement):

Universe: Universe is the total or actual number of people in a defined target audience.

Reach: Reach is the number of individuals from the universe who are exposed to the medium or vehicle.

The sum of all ratings achieved in a campaign GRP levels are generally measured and reported on a 4 week basis It is a measure of the media plan's trust

CPRP

Measurement used in planning a television media buy based on the cost of a commercial time slot and the rating of the program where the time slot is positioned. If, for example, the cost of a commercial time slot during prime time was $1000 and the program rating for that time was 10 (which means that 10% of the total potential audience was tuned to that program), then the cost per GRP would be $1000 divided by 10%, or $100. The CPGRP measurement is a way of measuring the efficiency of media cost, as compared to measuring the cost per thousand (CPT) and is generally used when making comparisons of the various broadcast vehicles. When the actual buy is made, the advertiser will still want to know the cost of reaching people on a cost-per-thousand basis.

The ratings industry breaks their statistics down in several ways, to express different measurements:

Share

The Share is the percentage of radio listeners tuned into a given station at a given time. For example - a "1.4 Share" means that 1.4% of all people listening to the radio at a specified time are tuned into the specified station or program.

Rating

Rating is the percentage of potential audience members - whether tuned into any program or not - who are tuned into a particular program or station at a given time.

Cume

Cume or Cumulative Audience is the number of unique people tuned into a program or station at a given time. Cume is usually expressed as the estimated number of listeners in any given quarter-hour.

The AQH figure is the average number of audience members during a typical quarter-hour (measured as quarters of the hour from :00 to :15, :15 to :30, :30 to :45, and :45 after the hour to the top of the hour, respectively.

Time Spent Listening (TSL)

The amount of time an average listener spends listening to the station or program before channel surfing. This measurement drives both the frequency of radio commercial breaks, as well as the station's programming strategy. Stations whose radio formats tend to have short TSLs (music stations) as well as dayparts (see below) with short TSLs (morning drive time, for example) will have more frequent commercial breaks; formats and times with longer TSLs will schedule breaks less frequently.

All of the other ratings are broken down by demographics. Stations that might have weak overall ("12+") demographics may have strong enough ratings within a given, desired "demographic" to be attractive to advertisers, and thus profitable.

For example, talk radio stations frequently have lower-than-average "12+" ratings, but much higher numbers among males age 35-54. Since the 35-54 male demographic is highly coveted by advertisers, such a station can be quite profitable.

In addition to demographics, a key breakdown in ratings is the "Daypart", or segment of the broadcast day.

In radio (and to a lesser extent television), the key dayparts are:

Morning Drive: characterized by short TSLs (the time a person spends in their car) and, for the well-programmed station, high cumes, Morning Drive (usually from 5AM to around 9AM) is a key revenue generator.

Mid-Mornings, Mid-Days: With lower listenership (measured by lower average quarter hours) but generally longer TSLs, the middle of the day is a place where stations frequently experiment with longer music, television programming, and longer television commercial sets.

Afternoon Drive: Again, high listenership but short TSL, combined with a more-tired listenership that is driving home from work, combines to make afternoon drive time (usually from 3PM to 7PM) a time of short sweeps and, in talk radio, brief conversational snips.

Evenings and Overnights: Lower listenership means lower revenues - but a standout program frequently can draw a niche audience that, if it shows up in the ratings book, can mean solid revenue.

Diary-based radio ratings in the US may inflate listenership, because they are only measured in 15-minute increments. Listening at any time during a quarter-hour counts as listening for the entire duration, even if the actual time was just for a song or two.

The process of surveying listeners for their preferences has also been criticised for its lack of flexibility. Listeners complain that modern radio lacks variety and depth but the measurement methods only facilitate further refinement of already minutely programmed formats rather than the overhaul that many listeners are asking for. Radio in the USA, is where listeners hear their old favorites rather than are exposed to new music. Data obtained by some audience measurement methods is detailed to individual songs and how they are reacted to by each age, racial, and economic group the station is seeking to attract. This statistical approach leads to highly recognizable songs (such as those from the Beatles) which score well with a cross-section of listeners.[14][15]

In South Korea, television measurement is handled by AGB Nielsen (formerly Media Service Korea) and TNmS Media (formerly TNS Korea). AGB Nielsen also handles internet content measurement with the help of CJ E&M's Smart Media division.[16]

Lotz, Amanda D. (2007) "The Television Will Be Revolutionized". New York. NY: New York University Press. p. 196-197 Lotz, Amanda D. (2007) "The Television Will Be Revolutionized". New York. NY: New York University Press. p. 199

^Lotz, Amanda (2007). The Television Will Be Revolutionized. New York, NY: New York University Press.

^"Content power is measured by CJ E&M and Nielsen Korea, and it's a ratings system that integrates the different types of media and measures consumer activities around a certain product. Three different items are taken into account: the issue ranking that analyzes the number of people who read news related to the program, the search ranking that measures the number of people who searched for the site on portal sites, and a buzz ranking that a program has on SNS." (source: jennywill (July 28, 2014). "'High School: Love On' ranks #1 in content power for the 2nd week of July". Allkpop. Retrieved July 28, 2014.)